The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1887-12-20

nothing more free from destination. or more
calculated to recupefate the physical and men
tai energies. While there are good many
people who have employed this institution,
there are vast number who are ignorant of
its excelencies There are men with cramped
chests and weak sides and respondent spirits
VINO, through the gymnasium might be rous-
ed up TO eXhuDcranco and eXhilaratiOn of
he There are many Christian people de-
spondent from year to year, who might,
through such an institution. be benefited in
their spiritual relations. There are Christian
people who seem to think that it is a good sign
| to be poorly; and because Richard Baxter and
! Robert Hall were inyalds, they think that by
the same sickliness they may come to the same
grandeur of character. / want to tell the
Christian people of my congregation that God
will hold you responsible for your invalidism
If 1t is your fault and when through right ex-
erclse and prudence you might be athletic and
Well The effect of the body on the soul you
| acknowledge. Put a man Of mild disposition
| upon the animal diet Of which the Indian par
takes, and in little while the blood will
change its chemical proportions. 1t will be-
come like unto the blood of the lion or the
tiger or the bear, while his disposition will
change, and become fierce cruel and unrelent-
ing; The body has powerful effect upon the
| soul
There are good people whose ideas of heaven
are all shut out with clouds of tobacco smoke
| There are people who dare to shatter the
| physical vase in which God has put the jewel
| OF eternity. There are men with great hearts
| anu lHIeIieCtS III DONleS worn out Dy llelr own
! neglects-magntccnt machinery capable of
propeling Great Eastern across the Atlantic,
| yet fastened in rickety North River pro-
| peller Martin Luther was mighty for God,
| first because he had noble soul, and, sec
ondly, because he had muscular development
which would have enabled him to thrash any
! five of his prosecutors, if it had been Chris
| tian so to do. Physical development which
| merely shows itself in fabulous lifting or in
/ perilous rope-wallSing, or in pugilistic encoun-
| ter, excites only our contempt; but we confess
| to great admiration for the man who has a
great soul in an athletic body, every nerve, mus
| Gle and bone of which is conseerated to right
uses Oh, it seems TO me outrageous that
men, through neglect, should allow their phys
ica health to go down beyond repair. A ship
which ought, with all sail set and every man
at his post, to be carrying q rich cargo for
eternity, employing all its men in stopping up
leakagesl When you may, through the gym
nasium, work off your spleen and querulous-
| ness and one-half of your physical and mental
ailments, do not turn your back upon such q
grand medicament.
Still further: / commend to you q large
class OF parlor games and recreations. There
is a way of making our homes hundred-fold
more attractive than they now. Those pa
rents cannot expect to keep their children
away from outside designations unless they
make the domestic circle brighter than any
thing they can find outside of it. Donot, then,
sit in your home surly and unsympathetic, and
with half-condemnatory look, because of the
sportfulness OF your children. You were young
once yourself; let your children be young Be-
cause your eyes are dim and your ankles are
still, do not denounce sportfuness in those upon
whose eyes there is the first lustre, and in
whose foot there is the bounding JOY of robust
health. / thank God that in our drawing
rooms and in our parlors there are innumerable
games and sports which have not upon them
the least faint of iniquity. Light up all your
homes with innocent hilarities. Do not sit
down with the rheumatism, wondering how
children can go on so. Rather thank God
that their hearts are so light, and their
laughter is SO free, and that theirs cheeks are
so rudy, and their expectations are so radiant.
The night will come soon enough and the
heart-break, and the pang, and the desolation
! 1t Will come soon enough for the dear child
rem. But when the storm actually clouds the
sky, it will be time enough for
! you to haul out your reef tackles.
Garry, then, into your own homes, not only
the innocent sports and games which are the
inventions OF our own day, but the games
| which come down with.th sportfulness of all
| the past ages-chess and charades, and tab
! leaux and battledore and calisthencs and
| iawn-tennis, and all those amusements which
| the young people of our homes know so we'll
| how to contrive. Then there will be the par
| Tor sociaities-groups of people assembled in
| your homes with wit and mimicry and jovial-
| ity, filling the room with JOY from door to
mantel, and from the carpet to the ceiling
Oh, is there any exhilaration like q score of
genial souls in one room, each one adding O
contribution of his own individual merrment
to the aggregation of general hiiarity?
suppose you want to 90 abroad in the city,
then you viii find the panorama and the art
galleries and the exquisite collections of pic
lures. You will find the Metropolitan museum
ana the historical society rooms full of rare
curiosities, and scores of places which can
stand plainly the test of what is right and
wrong in amusementS. You will find the
lecturing hail. which has been honored by the
names of Agassz in natural history, Doremus
in chemistry, Boynton in geology, Mitchell in
Of nom Holm ~,
and scores and hundreds of men who have
poured their wit and genius and ingenuity
through that particular channel upon the
hearts and consciences and imaginatons of
man, setting this country fifty years farther in
advance than it would have been without the
lecture platform
rejoice in the capitalization of outdoor
sports. / hail the Croquet ground and the fish
ermans rod, and the sportsnans gun. In
our cities life is so unhealthy and unnatural
that when censuS-taker represents q city as
having four hundred thousand inhabitants
there are only two hundred thousand since
II takes ut least two men to amount to one
man, so depicting and unnerving, and exhaust
ing is this metropolitan life. We want more
fresh air, more sunlight more of the abandon
of teld-sports. l cry out for it in behalf of
the church of God as well as in behalf of sec
ular interests. l wish that this winter our
ponds and our rivers and our Capitoine
grounds might be all aquake with the heel and
tho shout of the swift skater.
wish that when the warm weather comes
the graceful oar might dip the stream, and the
evcning-tide be resonant with boatman's song,
the bright Prov splitting the crystalline bill
low. We shall have the smooth and grassy
lawn and we viii call out people of all occu-
pations and professions, and ask them to Join
in the ball-payers sport. You will come back
from these outdoor exercises and recreations
with strength in your arm, and color in your
cheek and flash in your eye, and courage in
your heart. In this great battle that is open
ing against the kingdom of darkness we want
not only the conSecrated soul, but strong arm
and stout lungs and mighty muscle. / bless
God that there are so many Iecreations that
have not on them any faint of iniquity; recre-
ationS in which we may engage for the
strengthening of the body, for the clearing of
the intellect for the illumination of the soul.
There is still another form OF recreation
which l commend to you, and that is the
| pleasure OF doing good. l have seen young
! men, weak and cross and sour and repelling in
| their disposition, who 10y one heavenly touch
! have Weakened up and become blessed and
! huoyant, the ground under their feet and the
! sky over their heads breaking forth into music